Johnny Rivers celebrated the opening of the Whiskey a Go Go on the Sunset Strip and his role as the famed club’s first resident headliner with a show at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills on Jan. 15. For this special gig, fans came from around the country and around the world and youthful 71-year-old didn’t disappoint.

The current owners of the Whiskey are marking the milestone with a month of concerts. However, most of the artists booked at the club are singers who fronted 1980’s hair bands such as Stephen Pearcy of Ratt and the 2014 versions of ‘80’s bands such as Faster Pussycat and Jack Russell’s Great White. The club owners never bothered to even contact Rivers, so he booked his own party marking the event. Songwriter Jimmy Webb opened.

Rivers was backed by a seven-piece band, many of whom have been with him for years. He also hade five backup singers, four of whom make up the Waters Family, who are featured in the award-winning documentary about session singers, “20 Feet From Stardom.”

He delivered a hit-filled set that saw him looking and sounding remarkably as he pretty much always has. Throughout the evening the hits just kept on coming, with his cover of Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline,” Hank Williams’ “Midnight Special,” Willie Dixon’s “Seventh Son.”

A couple of the songs were actually preferable to the recorded versions, including a soft, nearly solo heartfelt delivery of Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears,” that he took to No. 10 in 1967 as well as the only hit he himself penned, “Poor Side of Town,” a No. 1 biggie in 1966.

He ended his set with his first hit, Berry’s “Memphis,” before performing the song that may be his most popular, Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan’s spy show theme, “Secret Agent Man.” The song featured a sly, noodling intro intended to fool the fans before he shook the walls with its classic deep, gritty opening guitar riff.

Rivers gave the 67-year-old Webb his first big break when he told another of his discoveries, The Fifth Dimension, that he’d like them to record Webb’s “Up, Up and Away.” The song became the title cut of the vocal group’s debut album that contained five Webb compositions, and both album and single went Top 10.

Webb, often gruff of voice and heavy-handed on the ivories, played a charming set punctuated with self-deprecating humor. He kicked off with a powerful melody he wrote and recorded himself in 1977, “The Highwayman,” that became both the name of and the first hit for the outlaw country supergroup that included Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.

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He then rolled through his impressive hits he wrote for others, including “Wichita Lineman” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” for Glen Campbell, “The Worst That Could Happen” for The Brooklyn Bridge, and the up-tempo “Up, Up and Away” that didn’t really fit Webb’s heavy tunes, before ending with “MacArthur Park,” his epic song that became an epic hit for actor-singer Richard Harris in 1968.

New Releases

Among the recently released albums, digital reissues, MP3 downloads and deluxe box sets are “The 2014 Grammy Nominees” that showcases 18 of last year’s biggest hits, including Lorde’s “Royals,” Katy Perry’s “Roar,” Pink’s “Just Give Me a Reason” featuring Fun leader Nate Reuss, Jason Aldean’s “Take a Little Ride,” Taylor Swift’s “Begin Again” and Tim McGraw’s “Highway Don’t Care” with Swift and Keith Urban; and a 13-CD box set, “The U.S. Albums” from The Beatles that includes LPs only released here such as “The Beatles Second Album,” “Something New,” “Beatles VI” and “Yesterday and Today” (the albums are also available separately).

“The Song is You,” from the original “Dreamgirls,” Jennifer Holiday, includes her take on Etta James’ “At Last,” Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “The Look of Love” that was a smash for Dusty Springfield; “MTV Unplugged” is a record of two shows from the popular music channel’s TV series taped last September; and the 18-track sampler, “Now That’s What I Call Country Music,” includes Kenny Chesney’s “Come Over,” former Hootie and The Blowfish leader Darius Rucker’s “True Believers,” Sara Evan’s “A Little Bit Stronger,” Lady Antebellum’s “Just a Kiss” and Miranda Lambert’s “Over You.”

“A Little Piece” is the first solo album in more than a decade from Ray Benson, leader of western Swing outfit Asleep at the Wheel that he formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970; the 2-Cd, “Live at the Fillmore West 30th June 1971” from Steve Miller’s pal Boz Scaggs; “Timeless” is a 15-song “best of” CD from Blues Hall of Fame singer-guitarist John Hammond, who recommended The Band to Bob Dylan and who wrote and performed the soundtrack to the 1970 Dustin Hoffman western, “Little Big Man.”